helen boyd's journal of gender & trans issues

There is a lot of language around transness that is about death/rebirth, & honestly, it always put me off. I didn’t like thinking about the idea of Jason dying (or Betty killing him off). It seems overly dramatic.

But that’s just me. I’m not good at metaphorical births & metaphorical deaths. I think we have words for those specific passages because they’re – well, specific.

3 Comments on Birth & Death

I was just thinking the same thing lately. Metamorphosis does not mean death, to me. It’s a transformation. Death seems so, I dont’ know, FINAL? transformation is more of a continuation of something. An ongoing phenomena. I don’t know. I’ve had way too much to drink. but there it is.

I’ve known people to do this “so and so is dead” thing. Some friends had a Halloween party, and they made gravestones for their former names. when I saw pictures, it made me uncomfortable. Maybe it’s because I never hated myself. I just needed to change. So male-named-person isn’t dead. He’s still in me where he belongs.

Transness runs the gamut, from those who are proud to be girly men to those who are totally deluded into trying to erase (i.e., “kill”) all reminders that they once were “male.” I have always argued for the former state of mind as being more natural. Were the concept of feminine males more accepted, it would encompass much of what we now call the “trans” community–so much so that the concept of “transness” would no longer be accurate; there would be no transition or crossing, per se, only fluid and mundane change along a broad spectrum, much like we regard changes in hair styles or fashion.